Trust in the Invisble.
By Jim Conley • Apr 23rd, 2008 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Brookline Selectmen Betsy DeWitt and Jesse Mermell take to the TAB’s op-ed page to urge a yes vote on the May 6th override ballot bailout. It’s like the surgeon who amputated the wrong leg asking you for the chance to reattach it. Yikes.
There are lots of whoppers in these 700 words, but this one rises to the top:
Other areas of cost containment have not been as well publicized. To reduce energy costs, buildings have been outfitted with energy-saving lights and switches; combined-fuel furnaces run on oil or gas, whichever is cheapest; and thermostats are up in summer and down in winter.
The town has also been making “invisible” cuts, reducing personnel by 15 “full-time equivalent” positions and holding a “no net new hires” policy. Building, park, street and sidewalk maintenance has been deferred. Street repairs have been cut back because the cost of petroleum-based materials, such as asphalt, has doubled.
Only in Brookline would the political leadership be promoting “invisible cuts”. What do these amount to in real dollars? Not much. If this is the best they can do, then we’re screwed.
In fact, the visible increases in spending on consultants, executive pay raises and capital projects have far outstripped any savings from setting the thermostat to 67 degrees in winter.
These two have no clue as to what’s going around them (and in Mermell’s case it would help if she showed up to the board’s meetings once in awhile). They take what the town administration gives them and they run with it. I can see why our professional staff couldn’t care less if the override means less economic diversity, more retail hardship and additional damage to the local housing market.
I can’t see why DeWitt and Mermell don’t see the folly in all this. Actually I can see why, but I’d rather not say it.
Update: Oh, and how ridiculous is the proposition that because hasn’t had an override in 14 years (like other Aaa-rated communities) we’re due for one now? Invisible in all this is that during at least half of that period new revenue from property taxes increased by $4 million per year (in addition to the 2.5 percent increase allowed under the law). Compare that to other Aaa communities.
Update (2): Mermell and DeWitt, as would most Proverriders, have us believe that the mythical structural deficit they’re wrastlin’ with is due to sharp increase in energy costs. How much more does the town spend to plan on utilities in its 2009 budget, you ask?
$320 thousand.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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So when will the Selectmen admit that the building boom they facilitated isn’t paying off? Can it be that growth adds costs faster than it adds revenue? Might that be why smaller towns tend to be fiscally healthier than big cities? Do we aspire to be more like Boston, New York, and Detroit? Yet, every time town meeting has to vote on a spot-zoning variance, they argue that more real estate development will bring in more tax dollars. When will they learn?
BROOKLINE’S TOMBSTONE: RTM
RIP
Selectmen Daly and Hoy and Selectman-candidate Benka have self-promotional opinion pieces in today’s TAB. A distillation of these pieces, as well as that ot Selectmen DeWitt and Mermell, is that Brookline’s Representative Town Meeting form of governance is not mentioned at all as perhaps contributing to the problems of Brookline and its 55,000+ residents. They all seem to march in lockstep. Not one dissident among them. They, and the TMMs, just might be part of the problem. With such unanimity and the pathetically small voter turnout in recent elections, perhaps the fault is with the 55,000+ residents - less these insiders - in not insisting that Brookline governance step into the 21st Century. These insiders of course enjoy the social perks of elective office. But how effective have they been over the years? Benka’s resume is a significant improvement over what we currently have. But he too has been part of the system as a TMM for some 27 years. Does Benka think that RTM works well for the Town? If so, his election would not change the “Same-old, Same-old, Good-old Boys and Girls” one iota. If he doesn’t think so, will he speak up before May 6th? I shall vote on May 6th for “none of the above” or specific write-ins, fictional and otherwise, as well as for “NO, NO Nannette” on the override. We must starve the beast of RTM and inscribe “RIP” on its tombstone.